Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe has slammed the Voice to Parliament referendum, declaring both Yes and No to be “racist notions”.
The controversial Victorian senator quit the Greens in February, declaring she wanted to represent the “black sovereign movement”.
“I don't think that we should have a referendum. I think that no and yes are both racist notions. The whole process of the referendum is based on racism,” Senator Thorpe said. “Now, going into the Australian Constitution as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, first peoples, we have to come to some agreement about sovereignty in this country.
“We can have a treaty of the 21st century. It's what we make it – the people in this country – and we can make it through peace and respect, and learn from one another, and have local agreements that feed up to a federal framework.” Senator Thorpe said she had negotiated the treaty legislation in Victoria when she was the state member for Northcote and “it’s not good”.
“We used to have access to land we used to have access to water. We used to have access to our language, and our law, and our children weren't being taken away.And I think in terms of what is owed, we negotiate, at the local level through family clan groups, and the country will not go broke if it's done properly and respectfully.
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